Domestic Help
- 1952
Mrs Hawkins relaxes with a hot cup of Bourn-Vita after another busy day.
A woman's work is never done, they say. But in this hectic 1954 advert for Cadbury's Bourn-Vita, after a day of child care and assisting at the service station run by her family, Mrs Constance Hawkins of Oxfordshire does at least get to enjoy a hot drink.
Advertisement for Cadbury's Bourn-Vita.
After a busy day of housework, helping her husband run a service station, doing the accounts and looking after her two daughters, Mrs Hawkins relaxes with a cup of Bourn-Vita.
In the cause of selling anything from baked beans to washing powders to all manner of labour-saving devices, advertisers have promised to make women's lives easier and to help them build happy homes and successful relationships.
There's no getting past the fact that women have all-too often been patronised and objectified by a male-dominated advertising industry. But screen advertising also tells (and sells) a more positive story of social progress for women, with increasing social and economic independence. This collection tracks the ups and downs of female empowerment in the 20th century, with its false steps as revealing as its forward ones.